The Virtual Community: Homesteading on the Electronic Frontier

Howard Rheingold has been called the First Citizen of the Internet. Inthis book he tours the "virtual community" of online networking. He describes acommunity that is as real and as much a mixed bag as any physical community -- onewhere people talk, argue, seek information, organize politically, fall in love, anddupe others. At the same time that he tells moving

Howard Rheingold has been called the First Citizen of the Internet. Inthis book he tours the "virtual community" of online networking. He describes acommunity that is as real and as much a mixed bag as any physical community -- onewhere people talk, argue, seek information, organize politically, fall in love, anddupe others. At the same time that he tells moving stories about people who havereceived online emotional support during devastating illnesses, he acknowledges adarker side to people's behavior in cyberspace. Indeed, contends Rheingold, peoplerelate to each other online much the same as they do in physicalcommunities.Originally published in 1993, The Virtual Community is more timely thanever. This edition contains a new chapter, in which the author revisits his ideasabout online social communication now that so much more of the world's population iswired. It also contains an extended bibliography.